My areas of research are quite varied, but lately I have devoted my energies to the dissertation. I tend to favor topics in 20th and 21st  century American popular culture, with an emphasis on audiences, fan culture, and web communities.

List of research topics:

• Victoriana in general (gender, popular culture, subcultures)
• Tattoo history and culture
• California cultures, with a focus on Los Angeles and San Francisco
• Riot Grrrl and the feminist DIY publishing renaissance
  
• Warrior Women in popular culture
  
• The vampire in the American imagination
• Technology in American culture
• Television history and culture
• Audience and Fan Studies
• Web Communities
• Gangster Films
• Hip-Hop Culture

Dissertation Abstract
Television Without Pity.com and the Dynamics of Audience Agency
Sandra M. Falero
Cultural Studies, Claremont Graduate University

Television Without Pity.com is a web community devoted to criticizing television programs. Their mission is to hold television networks and writers accountable by critiquing their work and “not just passively sitting around watching.” Unlike a fan site, the members of this community do not have to enjoy a program to engage in this dialogue. Many, in fact, frequently assert that they are not “fans” in any way. The site has a staff of writers that recap the episodes of about thirty-five different programs airing on network and cable television. These writers moderate message boards for each program as well as message boards created by users, which broach a myriad of topics relating to television, from old commercials to the representation of race on Friends.

This project seeks to document and analyze, through ethnographic analysis, the culture of Television Without Pity.com. Specifically, I plan to explore the dynamics of audience agency at the site. Because of the site’s immense size and population, I have chosen several aspects of the culture of Television Without Pity.com to explore:

1) the nature of the discourse of criticism concerning television programs

2) the extent to which site members feel they have an impact on television and its surrounding institutions of power, and,

3) the ways in which television “show runners” and performers in Hollywood are utilizing the site.

Many members of the television establishment have granted interviews with the site’s writers, others have spoken to the press about their use of the site. Like many web communities, this site’s message boards are created for public view, however, unlike many websites, Television Without Pity.com has achieved incredible popularity. Its message boards have attracted the attention of actors, directors, writers, and producers of network television programs (some of whom have posted as members, others of which have been interviewed by the site’s writers) as well as television critics at such publications as New York Times Magazine. This project ultimately seeks to explore the possibilities for and limitations of media change via online discourse.